Midway Fair | 3 years ago
Letitia's father was diagnosed with a form of cancer associated with Agent Orange. She released this song back in 2013 with her band the Bonafides first as a single, and it made our local radio station's top 10 that year. I've always loved the song, but when my mom was diagnosed with a somewhat unusual form of brain cancer it just hit differently. Despite the grim subject matter of the song, the chorus -- and especially the bridge -- are brimming with defiant hope, that makes the song an utter blast to sing.
I learned it last year in earnest and covered it on the first Saturday Matinee stream, but I wanted to do a full band version. It's very similar to her original, but I sped it up a little, went with more of a soul feel on the electric guitar and drums (though the original drum part is really neat in that it's almost entirely on the snare), and added a piano part to replace Letitia's acoustic guitar. I also cut a couple half bars, though I kept two of them at the end of the verses.
The entire album is worth getting (please support the original artist): https://letitiavansant.bandcamp.com/album/parts-labor
Lead vox: DIY 47
Guitar: The DonQuixotecaster, Bearhug compressor, Strymon El Capistan, Sakura 5W (lead channel)
Tenor harmony: DIY FET C12
Bass: Epiphone Viola Bass (pickups by John Benson), Bearhug compressor, Tone King Imperial (yes, it's a guitar amp)
Baritone harmony: DIY 251
Keys: Roland FP5, Yamaha grand piano patch in Logic
Drums: Sakae Trilogy (including the snare), Istanbul crashes, Avedis ride, vintage Zilldjian hi-hats
Interface: Fireface UCX & Fireface 400
Camera: Sony ZV-1
Software: Logic 10.7 and Final Cut 10.6
